A former St. Paul police officer who was brutally attacked while responding to a 911 hang-up call more than a decade ago has died of her injuries, the police department announced Sunday.

Former St. Paul Police officer Felicia Reilly laughs during a ceremony recognizing and honoring her years of service, at the St. Paul Police Federation office in St. Paul, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

“It’s with great sadness that we share the passing of retired Saint Paul Police Officer Felicia Reilly, who passed away Saturday, March 1, 2025,” St. Paul police spokesperson Nikki Muehlhausen said. “Those who knew Felicia remember her as compassionate, devoted, and an inspiration to many. Felicia was a hero and she will be profoundly missed.”

She was the first St. Paul female officer to die from injuries received in the line of duty, according to the St. Paul Police Retirement Association. The statement from the association said that her husband, Matt Reilly, was at her side when she died.

Reilly quit his job as a St. Louis Park police investigator to take care of his wife, whose condition grew progressively worse over the years.

Her family released a statement Sunday saying that Reilly “was injured in the line of duty and that was what killed her,” her family said. “She fought to stay alive.”

The statement read that she and her husband’s “faith in God gave her the grace and strength to fight for her life every day over the years and over tremendous odds.”

She “loved God, family, and being a cop in that order,” the statement continued. Her “death from this injury is heartbreaking. Our mom’s life was more than this injury.  She always encouraged every person to pray for their enemy and to practice forgiveness.”

In March 2010, Reilly responded to a 911 hang-up call at Thomas Jerard Swenson’s parents’ home.

“What ended her career was a courageous battle with a suspect that repeatedly kicked her and assaulted her,” St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell has said.

Swenson “sucker-punched her,” her husband said, which knocked her to the ground, and he continued to assault her.

A jury found Swenson guilty of assault and he was sentenced to 8½ years in prison in November 2015.

Due to her severe injuries, Reilly wasn’t able to return to work as a St. Paul police officer and for several years, the city fought her workers’ compensation claim. They settled as she and her husband were at the brink of bankruptcy over her medical bills.

Related Articles

Woman forced to drive stolen vehicle in Sunday afternoon carjacking

Minneapolis man charged with trying to join the Islamic State group

Attempted carjacking in St. Paul leads to gunfire Thursday night

St. Paul man charged in fatal stabbing of wife in city’s first homicide of 2025

‘Purely evil’: Man sentenced to 40 years in prison for killing, dismembering 2 women

In 2016 while being recognized and honored for her years of service, Reilly said that she saw double, her stomach had shut down, she could only consume puréed food.

She said she was in constant pain and had been prescribed an end-of-life drug.

Now that she has died from her injuries, it is unclear if additional charges will be brought against Swenson.

“We will consult with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office to determine if additional criminal charges are appropriate in this instance,” said Muehlhausen.

Mara Gottfried contributed to this article.

By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Zoe Saldaña earned her first Academy Award for best supporting actress in “Emilia Pérez,” capping an already accomplished awards season Sunday.

“Mommy! Mommy!” a tearful Saldaña said. “My mom is here. My whole family is here. I am floored by this honor. Thank you to the academy for recognizing the quiet heroism and the power in a woman like Rita and talking about powerful women. My fellow nominees, the love and community that you have offered to me is a true gift, and I will pay it forward.”

Saldaña accepted the award from the reigning winner in the category, Da’Vine Joy Randolph.

Related Articles

Sean Baker wins original screenplay Oscar for ‘Anora.’ ‘Conclave’ wins adapted screenplay trophy

List of winners so far at the 97th Academy Awards

‘Flow’ wins animated feature Academy Award, delivering Latvia its first Oscar

Kieran Culkin wins best supporting actor at the Oscars, completing his sweep

Oscars photos: See reunions, props and more candid moments from the red carpet

The win adds to a collection of successes for the star on the awards circuit: Saldaña won her first Golden Globe in January, and notched wins at the British Academy Film Awards, the Critics Choice Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Saldaña, a front-runner in the category, was among a roster of actors also nominated for the first time, including Monica Barbaro in “A Complete Unknown,” Ariana Grande in “Wicked,” and Isabella Rossellini in “Conclave.” Felicity Jones, nominated for her role in “The Brutalist,” was previously nominated in 2015.

In “Emilia Pérez,” Saldaña played the down-on-her-luck lawyer Rita Castro, hired by a Mexican drug lord to help facilitate gender-affirming surgery. That drug lord becomes Emilia Pérez, played by best actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón, the first openly transgender actor nominated for an Oscar.

Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language narco-musical had a leading 13 nominations heading into the Oscars, but an already contentious film generated even more controversy after old offensive tweets by Gascón surfaced. The film also received backlash for its depiction of Mexican culture.

Saldaña, whose role highlights her range through song and dance, was not spared from critique as some claimed she was in the wrong category, with more screen time than Gascón.

An emotional Saldaña last week, and in previous acceptance speeches, credited “Emilia Pérez” with being a film about identity and love.

“I’ve never been questioned about where I come from or judged by how I speak or what my pronouns are. I believe that everybody has the right to be who they are and ‘Emilia Perez’ is about truth and is about love,” she said in accepting the award for best actress in a supporting role at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. “I think that us as actors, now more than ever before, we really have to tell stories that are beautiful and thought-provoking and live within the spectrum of artistic freedom.”

Saldaña, whose career spans nearly 25 years, is known for her roles in major franchises such as “Star Trek” as Uhura, “Avatar” as Na’vi princess Neytiri, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Gamora, the green-complexioned alien assassin-turned-Guardian of the Galaxy.

This year’s flu season has been miserable and is proving to be among the worst in decades. Now there are growing worries about next year’s flu vaccinations.

This week, the Food and Drug Administration — now with vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm — unexpectedly and without reason canceled a March meeting of scientists who advise the FDA on vaccine policy. A similar meeting at the Centers for Disease Control was postponed last week.

Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, the head of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, joined Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the implications of axing the meeting.

Timelines for flu vaccines are tight. Why do cancellations of these March meetings matter?

It takes about six months for the virus that scientists use for the vaccine to grow. It’s then available in late summer or early fall.

“It’s like planting a garden,” Osterholm said. “If you postpone it two months, you might be in trouble when you can harvest, and if you can harvest it at all.”

The timeline is already tight to make an educated estimation on what flu strains will be a problem next year, and the virus can change between now and then.

“But this is our best guess and our best attempt to give us the best match for the virus circulating next winter and what’s in the vaccine,” he said.

Since the vaccine is often grown in chicken eggs, could bird flu affect development?

The short answer is no. And Osterholm said this is some good news among the bad.

“Right after 9/11, when we had so many concerns about terrorism and so forth happening, the U.S. government took extra effort, along with the vaccine manufacturers, to secure the facilities where these chickens actually lay the eggs,” Osterholm said.

The eggs used by scientists are embryonated, meaning they’re fertilized and growing a fetal chicken. The chickens are raised under tight biosecurity.

“The buildings are airtight with special filters,” Osterholm explained. “And so we feel pretty confident that even if a H5N1 situation is occurring in the region where these egg-producing locations are at, we’re still in really good shape.”

Can the vaccines be manufactured without FDA or CDC panel guidance?

The panels evaluate what’s been happening with the flu in the southern hemisphere. The strains circulating there typically predict what’s likely to happen in the U.S. four to five months later, according to Osterholm.

“And without those kind of data, we can’t do that,” he said. “It’s not just something casually done saying, ‘Ah, let’s just go with that one, OK?’ Now there really is a major effort made to come up with the closest match we can. So this timing and the meetings themselves are very, very important.”

If the federal government scales back mass vaccination, how could people still get shots?

“At this point, we are really in the worst place I’ve been in my 50-year career in terms of vaccine-preventable diseases,” Osterholm said.

Several state governments, in line with Kennedy, are increasingly identifying as anti-vaccine. For example, the Surgeon General of Louisiana recently issued a statement saying the state department of health no longer supports vaccine campaigns for children — and for parents that want them, to seek immunizations out independently. In Texas and New Mexico, there’s a worsening outbreak of measles, which the U.S. declared eliminated back in 2000. However, dropping rates of MMR vaccines for kids are bringing the disease out of the shadows.

“And so there is this ever-creeping concern coming into the vaccine picture of people who are not getting vaccinated,” Osterholm continued. “We have a real battle on our hands right now in terms of helping the public understand what will happen if they’re not vaccinating their kids. What this means is this is not without a consequence. So you may think you’re making a moral choice. We’re also making a choice that can end up killing your child.”

Osterholm also pointed out that federal governments in the past have been a leader in the discussion, calling it “unfortunate” that it’s not the present case.

Can states continue vaccine programs if the federal government stops dispersing shots?

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ meeting was canceled recently. When the group makes a recommendation on vaccines, it’s affirmed by the CDC and triggers a sequence of events, including covering child vaccination programs.

“Without that, you basically don’t have a mechanism for paying for these vaccines, and so it’s a much larger issue than just telling parents that this is a good thing to do,” Osterholm explained. “It also makes the wheels of public health turn.”

Many state and local health departments in the U.S. have immunization programs largely supported by federal dollars. Osterholm is concerned that there’ll be a mass reduction in these programs under the Trump Administration. He also expects hefty layoffs at the CDC in the coming weeks, which will directly impact local health programs.

“The whole system right now is devolving into, frankly, a black hole,” he said. “I am incredibly, incredibly concerned that we’re going to see a major erosion in [vaccination] for children in this country over the next year or two, and it will absolutely result in major outbreaks.”

Are you worried about pandemic readiness, should one occur?

Related Articles

Vaccination rates are declining. They might get worse as states relax rules

Losing a pet can cut deeper than many people realize. Here’s how friends can help

An ice rink to fight opioid crisis: Drug-free fun vs. misuse of settlement cash

Texas measles cases rise to 146 in an outbreak that led to a child’s death

Measles is one of the world’s most contagious viruses. Here’s what to know and how to avoid it

“Everyone has to understand the pandemic clock is ticking. We just don’t know what time it is,” Osterholm warned, underlining there will be more pandemics — and they could be worse than COVID-19.

“Are we prepared for this? Absolutely not,” he said. “We have so many lessons that should have and could have been learned from what we went through with COVID that no one really ever took the time in federal governments or organizations to really review that.”

“I fear that we’re going to go into the next pandemic… not any better prepared,” Osterholm continued. “But more importantly, we have a public now that distrusts public health unlike any time in modern history.”

By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Flow,″ a wordless cat parable, won the Oscar for animated feature at Sunday’s 97th Academy Awards. The win gives Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis his first Academy Award.

“Flow” was made with Blender, a free, open-source graphics software tool using computer generated animation. The result is a dreamy aesthetic paired with a peaceful, yet post-apocalyptic, fable about a black cat, dog, capybara, ring-tailed lemur and secretary bird trying to survive a catastrophic flood. The film has no dialogue and forces viewers to be mesmerized by the unlikely relationship and understanding between the species trying to escape the rising waters.

It’s only Zilbalodis’ second animated film as a director.

Related Articles

Kieran Culkin wins best supporting actor at the Oscars, completing his sweep

Oscars photos: See reunions, props and more candid moments from the red carpet

Photos: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and more on the Oscars red carpet

Watch as stars arrive at the Oscars 2025 red carpet

Forget the pundits — here’s what ought to win at the Oscars. And what should have gotten a chance.

″Thank you to my mom and dad. Thank you to my cats and dogs. I’m really, moved by the warm reception our film has had. I hope this will open of doors to independent animation filmmakers around the world,” said Zilbalodis. “This is the first time a film from Latvia has ever been nominated. So it really means a lot to us. We are very inspired and we hope to be back soon.”

Zilbalodis’ unexpected Oscar contender — and now winner — has been welcomed with open arms this award season. The win Sunday adds to an already impressive resume for the new director, which includes a best animated feature win at the Golden Globe Awards and nominations from Critics Choice Awards, Annie Awards and British Academy Film Awards.

The success of the film is shared with producers Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. The Latvian, French and Belgian co-production was also nominated for best international feature film, and is the first Latvian film to be nominated at the Academy Awards.

The film beat another atmospheric story in “The Wild Robot,” as well as “Inside Out 2,” Disney’s highest-grossing movie last year, and Claymation films “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” and “Memoir of a Snail.”

___

For more coverage of the Oscars, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards.